Lobbying Flurry Precedes U.S. Vote on Fukushima Rules

By Brian Wingfield -
Mar 1, 2013

A proposed requirement that U.S.
nuclear-power plants add $20 million devices to prevent
radiation leaks, one of the costliest recommendations stemming
from meltdowns in Japan two years ago, has attracted a flurry of
last-minute lobbying.

The U.S. nuclear industry opposes the rule, which would
require almost a third of the nation’s reactors to install a
special filter on vents designed to prevent an explosive buildup
of gases. Exelon Corp. (EXC), which owns more U.S. reactors than any
other company, estimates each filter would cost $20 million,
meaning the Chicago-based company could end up paying $220
million to equip its units.

The staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
recommended in November that the radiation-scrubbing filters be
required on 31 aging reactors. The commission itself is now
voting on the proposal, a process that is expected to conclude
in coming days just as the second anniversary of the triple
meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant nears.

“I would encourage you to resist outside pressure to
disregard the expert recommendations of your staff,”
Representative Paul Tonko, a New York Democrat, told the five
NRC members at a House Energy & Commerce subcommittee hearing in
Washington yesterday. “To the public, there is no such thing as
a small nuclear accident.”

“Safety gains should be significant enough to outweigh
additional costs” as the agency considers ordering plant
upgrades, Representative John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican,
said at yesterday’s hearing.

Supporters of the measure say it is overdue and consistent
with what the rest of the world is doing. Japan announced last
year that filtered vents will be required on its reactors. Other
nations that use or are considering filtered venting systems on
their reactors include Taiwan, Spain, Switzerland, Finland,
Sweden, France and the Netherlands, according to the NRC.

Macfarlane’s Course

The NRC vote will signal which way Macfarlane is leading
the commission as it writes rules for the nation’s 104 operating
reactors. Macfarlane, 49, took office in July, and the filter
decision will be her first on Fukushima-related regulations.

“If we think a particular rule or regulation is required
for adequate protection of a facility, then we do not account
for cost,” Macfarlane said during a Feb. 25 interview at
Bloomberg’s Washington offices. She declined to discuss the
filter rule specifically, other than to say the commissioners
are voting.

The industry already faces decisions about investing in
costly upgrades or simply retiring aging plants that are in
competition with cheaper natural gas. Some other countries are
reconsidering their use of nuclear energy as well after the
Japan disaster. Germany said it would shutter its atomic plants
by 2022.

‘Grand Scheme’

The costs associated with adding filters are “not
overwhelming in the grand scheme of things” for utilities,
Julien Dumoulin-Smith, an analyst at UBS Securities LLC in New
York, said in a phone interview. The additional costs would add
“insult to injury’ for an industry in a difficult economic
environment, he said.

The industry prefers a plant-by-plant approach to the
question of whether filters are necessary.

‘‘The optimal filtration method should be determined on a
plant-specific basis,’’ Richard Myers, vice president for policy
development at the Nuclear Energy Institute, said at a
conference in Washington on Feb. 21. The NEI is a Washington-
based industry group of reactor owners.

Margaret Harding, a nuclear-industry consultant based in
Wilmington, North Carolina, said it would be better for the NRC
to define the acceptable limit of emissions from the vents and
allow the industry to determine the best way to achieve that
goal.

‘‘Every single reactor out there is a little bit
different,’’ she said today in a phone interview.

Reactors Affected

The proposed changes would affect so-called Mark I and Mark
II containments that house boiling-water reactors. These General
Electric Co (GE).-designed structures, similar to those that were
destroyed by a tsunami at Fukushima, are smaller than those at
newer reactors that can handle a greater buildup of pressure.

The filters are built to capture radioactive materials
before they are released into the atmosphere during an
emergency. They are installed on vents that resemble smokestacks
and can be opened to release hydrogen, which under pressure can
cause explosions.

In Germany, such filters are installed already at venting
systems in all of the country’s nine operating nuclear reactors,

Nicolas Wendler, a spokesman for the German Atomic Forum,
said today by phone. Equipping venting systems with filters
‘‘makes absolute sense’’ to prevent radioactive contamination
from spreading in case of an accident, he said.

Chernobyl Accident

The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in what is now Ukraine,
which caused radiation to spread across large swaths of
territory, prompted the adoption of venting technology for some
reactors in Europe, Harding said. U.S. regulators in response to
that accident placed greater focus on minimizing the causes that
could lead to such an event, she said.

No U.S. boiling-water reactor has ever had to use its
venting system, and the benefits of filtering vents don’t
outweigh the costs, according to the NEI. Most filtering should
take place inside reactor containment buildings before
additional devices are installed elsewhere at a power plant, the
group has said.

Krista Lopykinski, an Exelon spokeswoman, declined to
comment beyond the company’s price estimates for potential
reactor upgrades. Constellation Energy Nuclear Group LLC of
Baltimore estimates that requiring filters at two reactors at
its Nine Mile Point plant in New York would cost from $20
million to $30 million per unit, according to Richard Yost, a
company spokesman.

Southern Nuclear

‘‘Southern Nuclear shares the industry position on venting
and alternative filtering strategies,” Michelle Tims, a company
spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Spokesmen from Duke and Entergy said they couldn’t
speculate ahead of the NRC’s vote on the costs associated with
potential upgrades. Entergy owns three reactors that would be
affected and Duke and Southern each own two units.

Filters would limit the amount of radioactive material that
escapes during a severe plant emergency, said David Lochbaum,
director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Cambridge,
Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists.

If radiation “doesn’t leave the site, it can’t contaminate
land” he said in a phone interview. “Once Pandora’s box is
opened, all bets are off.”